Drunken driver crashed through fence

WASILLA — For crashing his pickup through a fence and into a telephone junction box, a Wasilla man wound up in jail on charges of drunken driving and child endangerment.

The accident was first reported at 11:15 p.m., Dec. 9 on Abby Boulevard near Brome Avenue, according to an Alaska State Trooper report.

“Freeman H. Howes, age 42 of Wasilla, was intoxicated when he drove his gray 2012 Dodge pickup truck off the road and though a private fence and then into a telephone junction box causing an estimated $700 damage to the property before leaving the area without having reported the collision,“ the report states.

Troopers say the pickup sustained $5,000 damage and the telephone box $700. They say they managed to track Howes down at home — though they don’t say how they accomplished that — and found he’d also had two children under the age of 10 in the pickup when he crashed.

“Howes was the only adult with the two children and was too impaired by alcohol to safely provide care for the children,” troopers say.

Howes was arrested and charged with drunken driving, child endangerment, failure to report an accident and criminal mischief. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility on $5,000 bail and ordered to find a third party to watch him before he can be released. As of Thursday afternoon he’d posted bail and been released.